Rivals
by VanInBlack
Summary: Rossi wants JJ, Will has JJ. Who's going to win this? Written in response to the Fanfic Challenge on "Chit Chat on Author's Corner".


_**A/N: Written in response to Tracia's and Tonnie's Fanfic Challenge. This little story takes place within Episode 17, Season 3 "In Heat". My assigned pairing was Rossi/LaMontagne, and I apologize dearly to the one who prompted it, if this is not what you had in mind (I'm willing to bet it isn't ;)). I just couldn't bring myself to write them as a romantic pairing, but my usually rather vivid imagination stretches only so far...**_

_**I'm sorry, too, that a little bit of Rossi/JJ sneaked in as well... **_

_**Anyway, I hope you still enjoy reading! **_

_**Disclaimer: Criminal Minds clearly doesn't belong to me, if it did, I'd never even think about firing AJ and Paget...**_

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**Rivals**

"So, you and JJ?" Rossi asked as he slipped onto the barstool next to Will LaMontagne. His question was more of a rhetorical nature, yet, the younger man looked at him in surprise and asked back: "What?"

"You're the ominous boyfriend she doesn't admit having," Dave stated matter-of-factly, ordering a Scotch for himself.

"That obvious?" Will wanted to know.

Dave nodded. "Hardly to miss for a bunch of world-class profilers." He smiled lightly to himself, remembering LaMontagne's surprise appearance this morning.

JJ had hastily professed that their previous meeting didn't go beyond a professional level, conveniently leaving out that this only applied to the team – bar Rossi, as he hadn't been back by the time the BAU helped the cop with a case – but not herself. She had clearly been uncomfortable, but judging from everybody else's amused faces, she didn't have to be. Everyone on the team seemed to have known already that she and the detective from New Orleans were an item.

Now, Rossi knew it as well. And he had to admit that he wasn't too thrilled about it, now that his suspicions had been confirmed and she was officially off limits for him.

From the moment he had met her in Hotch's office on his first day back, he had been interested in her, but she'd brushed off all of his attempts on asking her out. When he asked her for a reason, she only vaguely replied that she never mixed her work with her private life, but he had always suspected that there was more to the story. Especially since he had a sinking feeling that she was just as attracted to him as he was to her.

"She's ashamed of me, obviously," Will muttered more to himself than to Dave, taking a sip from his beer. "It's either this or she's seeing someone else."

"That I doubt," Rossi said, the words slipping out before he could stop himself. Damn, it hadn't been his intention to give himself away to someone he considered to be his rival.

Of course Will noticed his slip and jumped right at it, turning his head to glare at Rossi, almost as if he was willing him to pick a fight about JJ.

"Don't worry, she turned me down," Dave reassured him quickly.

"Yeah, but for how long? If she ain't even willing to admit to her team that she's with me?" Will snorted.

"If it's any consolation, I won't approach her again."

The words were hard for Dave to express, but he knew that while JJ might feel some attraction to him as well, from the way she had declined his advances, she was nothing but committed to the young cop, even if he didn't believe it yet. And the last thing he wanted was to destroy a relationship. In his younger years he might have challenged the other man, in fact, he had enticed ex-wife number three away from another man, but he considered himself to be older and wiser now.

LaMontagne eyed him suspiciously . He couldn't deny his jealousy and also the fear of the fact that his rival was so much closer in every day life to the woman he loved than himself. A long-distance relationship itself was hard to maintain, but knowing that there was someone else closer to his woman, a someone who was just as interested in he, had him sweating quite a bit.

"You should talk to her instead of sitting in a bar," Rossi suggested, downing the rest of his Scotch, before getting up. Throwing a twenty-dollar-bill onto the counter, he added, the tone of his voice leaving no doubt of his seriousness.

"I meant what I said. I'll keep my fingers off of her. But should you ever hurt her, I strongly advise you to run, as fast and as far as you can, because I'll be the one to hunt you down and kick your sorry ass so far into next week that you'd wish you were never born."

With that he turned and left the bar, a deep sadness filling his heart that he once again was the one to be crossed in love, trying desperately to convince himself once more that he was obviously meant to be alone and that he could be happy just like that.

As always, he failed miserably.


End file.
